In Merlin, why does the dragon, Kilgharrah, call Merlin a warlock , not a wizard?

By Sara Bellum On August 27, 2015 In Sara Bellum, Uncategorized No Comments

Dear Sara,

In the BBC television series Merlin, why does the dragon Kilgharrah call Merlin a warlock , not a wizard. Isn’t a wizard someone who is wise and magical while a warlock is evil and magical? Kilgharrah was Merlin’s mentor and seemed to otherwise speak of him as being on the side of light.

Thanks for answering,
Birdie

Dear Birdie,

While the creators and writers might not have understood the distinction, there is generally considered to be a great difference between a wizard and a warlock. In Wicca neither one would apply and a practitioner, male or female is termeda witch.

We are however speaking of the fictional use, not a religious one. The very word warlock has roots in Middle English warloghe, from Old Englishwǣrloga one that breaks faith, the Devil, from wǣr faith, troth+ -loga (from lēogan to lie); akin to Old English wǣrtrue — more at very, lie Kilgharrah (the dragon) had extracted a promise from Merlin to free him from the dungeon where Uther had imprisoned him but at the point where the dragon called Merlin a warlock that promise was unfulfilled so maybe he was pointing to that broken promise when he called him a warlock.

Fictional wizards on the other whole are people who have studied magic and are not necessarily possessed with inborn ability to tapinto magic. In the show, Gaius is a wizard. He studied and practiced for many decades with the object to heal and to help. Merlin should also earn this name since he began to study magic in a systematic way. My feeling is the writers of this TV series made no distinction between the words while in most fiction, a person who uses magic f or evil is a sorcerer or sorceress and if male is also called a warlock or if female a witch.

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Sara Bellum

Editor at Buzzy Multimedia Publishing

The name's Sara Bellum, and I'm the editor-at-large here at BuzzyMag - the hostess with the mostess, if you will. I like to think that my first calling is fighting crime and delivering a heaping dose of sweet, sweet justice to all manner of thugs, miscreants, hoodlums, ruffians, and ne'er-do-wells, but unfortunately, violent vigilantism doesn't exactly pay big bucks these days.

Times are tough, my friends, and I've got bills to pay, so I decided to put my encyclopedic knowledge of all things sci-fi & fantasy-related to use to help me land a day job. To tell you the truth, it's kind of a nice change of pace. My manicures have been lasting a bit longer lately.